Hey Team,
Charter with Horizon coming up after many years away.
Horizon is suggesting I book a Renport hotspot for wifi -- but...

Doesn't AT&T offer the "International Day Pass" for $10/day + 50% off addl lines on same account?
We have iphones 11/12/13 in our family (most with 5G)
Is there any reason to get the Renport considering we all have AT&T unlimited?

I will need to connect my laptop via VPN for business... but it is vacay, so I am NOT doing hours per day on the laptop. I am looking at 10 minutes here or there.
In older threads, I see some connectivity concerns - have the network(s) improved in past few years?

Is the AT&T network sufficient for hotspot in many/most anchorages?
Horizon also requires we enable a local cell plan for their provided phone that we may never use.
I am more concerned about data.
Do we really need the Renport offering?
Thanks in advance for the 2022 update.
Jeremy

Examining the AT&T travel policy, our account has an upper limit of $150 a billing period for the international roaming fee. It does state the second phone on the same account is only $5 a day. So pay for 10 days of two phones in the same billing period and anything past that is free. We haven't tested this, but once you hit $150 in fees, all gravy after that. I think last time (March 2020) we only turned the phones on a couple of days as we were in USVIs as well.

We did just buy hotspot specific for the Digicel 4G frequency (Hauwai purchased used on eBay) and signed up for Google Fi which has unlimited data anywhere in the world. I'll report back at the end of the month if this was worth the $120 total we spent for the 15 days we will be down. The hope is that Google has negotiated decent 4G speeds with the local carrier. If not, maybe next time just get a Digicel data plan (not unlimited, have to go to store in Road Town, can't set up and test before trip, etc..).

The thought is the dedicated hotspot will always be on and allows 15 devices to always have connection (two families online for weather/boatyball/workemail/kindle/reservations/wificalling) without messing with the iPhone tethering. Backup plan is a spare iPhone as hotspot and Google Fi, but in our experience it's a bit clunky.

We'll report back after this month! (thanks for all the previous posts on this forum for guiding me on data plans andn finding the correct 4G frequency hotspot).

I frequently use the AT&T International Day Plan. It works quite well with excellent speed pretty much all over. I enable my phone as a hotspot. My laptop works fine connected, and my wife also connects her phone to the hotspot, then uses WiFi calling. She does not enable international data roaming on her phone, so the only charge is $10/day for my phone.

Renport isn't cheap but we used them on our trip last July and both coverage and speed from our Renport equipment was far better than the router on the boat provided by Moorings. I was able to use my VPN for work from every anchorage, including Anegada. Renport's plan was unlimited data.

For phone usage I used the Verizon International plan for $10 a day but didn't hotspot my phone.

We chartered with Horizon recently and used their cell phone to call them a couple of times, and otherwise relied on my T-mobile phone with an international plan, with a caveat. T-mobile is usually worse than ATT but not sure if there is a difference there because we're probably all roaming off the same network. My phone acted as hotspot for wife and kids and it was slow but ok for casual browsing. The one time that I really I wanted a fast connection, for the playing the BoatyBall challenge when we were going to Anegada, I got up early enough to dingy in to Bitter End to use their wifi. Renport was just too expensive to justify. I'd say for just 10 minutes of work here or there, I'd go with the cell phone if you're not on zoom or something like that where good connectivity is vital. Your remote desktop/VPN settings can make a difference too - set them for a slow connection.

Even on land we use our AT&T international day plan as a backup. It works great in CGB (not really need most of the time since we pickup the STT towers) but nice to have available. I'm told the CoconutBreeze wifi is visible and functions in the anchorage and I'm getting prepared for some nice access point upgrades that will likely improve my broadcast range. It's a 400mbps fiber connection and I'm willing to share with TTOL folks. PM me here for pwd.

So far the Google Fi and the eBay hotspot is working pretty consistently. Nanny Cay, Norman, Baths and Cooper all have 1 to 8 Mbps. I'll have a full report later, but unlimited data hotspot for the whole boat has been much nicer than a single iPhone and tethering. We've already used 12gb since Monday night!

Off to North Sound in a bit!

Can you cancel Google Fi once the trip is over and sign up again before next trip? Seems like a decent dealt and far less then renport.

Would you mind sharing the Huawei model and frequency? I've been using Fi and have had good luck with it - I would like to get a hotspot. Fi worked when we were on "Quarantine Beach" at Anegada last year (near Walker & Nancy's).

Just got throttled down to 2G speeds after 50gb data usage on Fi.

Was working great at Anegada till the second day when we hit the limit. A boat full of devices start to add up.

BEYC reception and speed has been the worse so far.


FYI 2G is enough to do Boaty Ball if only one device is connected!

Huawei E5576 - 508 Router (Caribbean specific)
Has connected to Digicel each time I checked.

I was able to put a 90 day "hold" on google Fi before the next billing cycle. We will find out this fall if cancelling is as easy as I'd hoped.

Cool. Thank you. 50 Gb would last me a couple of months so that might be an option. I just do text messages (avoiding attachments) and e-mails (text-only as much as possible). Mostly I want to be able to receive notifications - then I can respond when I'm around WiFi.

Quick update:
We arrived BVI on Monday Aug 15 -- using ATT International Day Pass for 11 days trip.
Service for the most part has been useable (LTE), with notable exceptions:

1. Western shore of Virgin Gorda - at best 2 bars of 3G (Flow). Not enough throughput to hotspot the laptop. We anchored in Trunk Bay (just north of The Baths National Park) and service was, as expected, zero. Next night we anchored in Pond Bay. Also zero service. Fine. It's vacay, and we chose to anchor in a secluded place.

2. Anegada. Same. Although we had telephone and even whatsapp kinda worked (kinda, not exactly a technical term) - our 48+ hours in Anegada were "turn it all off and enjoy being in Anegada. Nothing wrong with that.

3. The Dogs -- why did I try to make a call? Because there was an urgent matter. That had to wait.

4. Guana Island - White Bay - 4 bars of LTE, hotspot is perfect. There must be a tower at the resort.

5. JVD -- LTE, even on our overnight at Sandy Spit

6. Norman Island (not The Bight) -- not so good. Able to call, but limited data. No hotspot.

7. Peter Island Great Harbor, 3 bars LTE, good data.

Everywhere else near Tortola was strong enough LTE, and I paid $10/day for unlimited voice/text/data + up to 40GB hotspot per month, for the first line, then $5 per line, up to 10-days per line.

Overall, no complaints, and we didn't have to buy a subscription to anything beyond our ATT plan.
I hope this info is useful to others in the future.

Super helpful, OP. Thanks for the followup.